| Sources |
- [S25] 1930 US Federal Census, (www.ancestry.com).
Name: Walter E Scheetz Home in 1930: Monrovia, Los Angeles, California Age: 7 Estimated birth year: abt 1923 Relation to Head of House: Son Father's name: Eugene Mother's name: Ida E
- [S888] Social Security Death Index 1935 - Current, (www.ancestry.com).
Name: Walter Eugene Scheetz
Last Residence: 95662 Orangevale, Sacramento, California, USA
Born: 25 Jan 1923
Died: 6 Dec 2007
State (Year) SSN issued: California (1952)
- [S927] Obituary.
Obituary: Walter Scheetz, innovative welding-shop owner, traveler
By Robert D. Dávila
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Walter E. Scheetz, an early Aerojet employee who opened his own welding shop and was active in business and community groups in Folsom and Orangevale, died Thursday. He was 84.
He died at his Orangevale home of complications from heart problems, said his son, Hal Scheetz.
Working in his garage, Walter Scheetz started a business in 1962 that became Scheetz Welding Service in Folsom. He earned a reputation for innovation and quality that inspired a customer to offer a motto for a sign that hangs at the Greenback Lane shop: "If Scheetz Can't Weld It, Junk It."
"People would bring us the oddest things: broken wheelchairs, bicycles, antique lamps, (cremation) urns," said his son, who took over after his father retired in 1989. "During the first energy crisis, he did a lot of gas tanks."
Previously, Mr. Scheetz had worked as a welder and shop foreman at Aerojet. He built rocket test stands as one of the first employees at the Rancho Cordova site in the 1950s. He joined Aerojet in Azusa in the late 1940s after spending two years working and riding motorcycles in Alaska with his wife before returning to California to raise a family.
Mr. Scheetz was active in the community as a business owner. He fabricated signs for the Folsom and Orangevale chambers of commerce, donated his labor for church projects and supported an area Meals on Wheels program, family and friends said.
During the annual Pow Wow Days celebration in Orangevale, he built stages for performing acts and entered mechanical floats in the parade, winning a prize for most unique idea in 1964, his son said.
"He loved being here and giving back to the community," Hal Scheetz said.
Walter Eugene Scheetz was born in 1923 to farmers in Richland, Kan., who moved to Southern California when he was a child. He graduated from Monrovia High School in 1941 and started trade school before joining the Navy.
He worked as an aircraft welder at a naval air station in Coronado during World War II. He also met Betty Jean Blaine, who was serving in the WAVES, and they married in 1946.
Mr. Scheetz was an avid motorcyclist who restored many models and loved riding with family and friends. He also enjoyed traveling with his wife in a fifth-wheel trailer around the western United States after retiring.
He was a direct, plain-spoken man who could be "gruff and honest and would tell you to your face if he didn't agree with something," Hal Scheetz said. He mellowed into "a big teddy bear" after years of stress running a business, his son said.
"He shouted a lot, but that was from being in a welding shop," said friend Terry Bacon, owner of Orangevale Glass.
"I'd tell customers who needed welding, 'Go down and see Walt, and he'll take care of you. Don't worry about his bark ? he just doesn't hear really well.' "
- [S926] Find-A-Grave, (www.findagrave.com).
Walter Eugene Scheetz
Birth: Jan. 25, 1923
Death: Dec. 6, 2007
Burial:
Mount Vernon Memorial Park
Fair Oaks (Sacramento County)
Sacramento County
California, USA
Created by: Nephele
Record added: Oct 04, 2012
Find A Grave Memorial# 98293144
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1923 - 2007 (84 years)
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